How did you all fit in the shoe box?
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A shoe box?
Luxury!
and the point you wanna make bob?? - In one sentence will do!!
Had a poor year trig point hunting last year with just 4 added to my collection. So I thought I’d try and do at least 3 per month starting with January 2024. So after spending a few nights pawing over some maps, I found three local ones I could do on an afternoon, even if the weather wasn’t too good. I took Mrs Fox with me today and motored out to the first. It was supposed to be at the side of the main busy road between Tickhill and Rossington. After dicing with death a few times staggering down the verge, I eventually found it at the edge of the field. Just one problem though, to get to it I had to climb an electrified fence…
I didn’t think fence was powered up so I gingerly grasped the wire…
I was right…It wasn’t, so I climbed over and got the shot…
The second trig was about ten miles away so we were soon picking our way down a very narrow unfenced road. It was quiet though being miles away from anywhere.
The trig was called ‘Idle Stop’ with good reason, because that’s where the road ended and we parked up on some waste ground. I only hope the car isn’t on bricks with the wheels missing when we returned…Or even worse…
So a blusty walk along the muddy riverbank and after half a mile the trig was easy to spot…
It certainly was a good place to build a trig point, the views over Haxey were spectacular…
A quick photo and logged the number and to the motorway services for a Greggs Sandwich.
If fruitcake is reading this…This is what the ‘Park Drain Hotel’ looks like now. Turned into a house. The trig was less than a mile from here.
That’s it for today, so just one more to do before the end of the month…
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Well done on achieving your target Bob, great photos too…. 
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Are they starlings in the picture with the water tower looking thing?
Thanks Mags, I’ve missed getting out so much. No reason really, we didn’t even go away on holiday last year and even let our passports run out too. Gonna try harder this year…
I think they are a colony of rooks Mr Smith, although we do get murmurations? of Starlings around dusk.
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With one more trig point to bag before the end of the month I’ve selected a couple of local ones to do when it eventually stops raining. Maybe tomorrow or Wednesday. I selected two because having read a report by someone who has visited them, it looks like they might be tricky to locate being behind piles of clay, barbed wire fences and undergrowth. They are also in built up areas. I much prefer the ones miles from anywhere, and I’ve picked out a bunch of them for later in the year upon the Yorkshire wolds. Perhaps a picnic with a flask of tea and a ham sandwich…Or does that make me sound like too much of an Anorak…
And why not…
I checked a few of the trig points near Kirriemuir. The highest was near our farm at 2916 feet. I used to walk there a few times with my dog. Rather cold it was.
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Now you’re talking Besoeker, some brilliant trigs to bag up in the highlands. If I had my time again, and I wasn’t married, I would most certainly go Munroe Bagging. These days I suppose I could only do one or two per week, and I’ve got Mrs Fox to consider, it’s a long way to go on holiday and leave her on her own. The only thing Mrs Fox climbs is a bar stool with a G&T in her hand…Would it have been great to have married a runner with a love of climbing mountains…How good would I have been…?
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Great pics Bob, and thanks for the trip down memory lane.
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The last couple of days before the end of January, and I still had one more trig point to bag to keep to my schedule of three per month. I chose two reasonably local ones for today’s final search. I chose two because after reading reports from baggers who had visited them, I might have problems getting close up and personal with one of them. Worth a shot though since I would be in the area.
About an hours drive took me close to Darfield near Barnsley and after a couple of drive by’s, I found a suitable parking place on the lane that should lead me to the first one. The trig point is at Dearne Ings next to the river and was easy to find, not so easy to get to though. Although I spotted it from the lane, there was a steep bank of wet clay obstructing my path, so after slipping and sliding over I managed to reach it…
It was situated on the bank of the swollen river Dearne. The compulsory photo followed…
The second trig was in Upper Haugh near Rawmarsh, and was named Rawmarsh Reservoir.
I could see the blue painted trig as we passed it on a slight hill at side of the road, safely out of reach of the local scallies and on Yorkshire Water property. In a compound and completely surrounded by a substantial security fence. Reports suggested that access could be gained at the back of the compound through a loose spoke. They didn’t mention the muddy field and barbed wire fence. I managed to scramble under the barb wire and sloshed my way though a very waterlogged field until I spied the loose rail in the fence. It was a very tight squeeze through the gap, half a stone heavier and I would have been disappointed.
Very unusual to see a blue trig point, and if I could avoid being spotted it would be a very satisfying bag, so I broke cover and made my way across the gravel…
I made the bag and legged it out of there, squeezing back through the bars in the fence was harder going the other way and I had visions of having to spend the night in the compound. But after some huffing and puffing I was free, and managed to get away unobserved.
Two bags today and better than expected, bringing my overall total to 31 so far.
Can’t wait to do some more in February, already got some chosen, out Bridlington way…
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Nice one Foxy, thanks for the inspiration.
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My pleasure…Goodnight mate… 
In an attempt to keep up with my 3 trig points a month. I decided to go yesterday after hearing from Mr Hudson (The Yorkshire weatherman at the beeb) that the weather was going to get a bit nasty for the next few days. And looking out of the window at falling snow, he turned out to be right. It’s always going to be difficult with outdoor pursuits at this time of the year, so it’s it’s best not to look a gift horse in the mouth so to speak…It could be snow like this for the rest of the month…
About 140 miles round trip and I didn’t start until late on in the morning due to the early Tesco shop and breakfast. I’m a grumpy old bugger when I’m hungry. So it was 11:30 am by the time I was bombing down the M18/M62 (roadworks on the Ouse Bridge didn’t help) to my first find of the day way out past Driffield.
I drove past the location a couple of times looking for a parking spot, I eventually found one close to a Yorkshire Water compound apparently just in front of the trig point. I wandered around to the rear of the compound and past an electric fence. This one was working, I could hear the hum, and it was holding back a field full of bullocks…Didn’t want to tangle with those bad boys!..The trig point was easily spotted on some waste ground in the corner of a field. Getting to it was another thing. It was surrounded by deep mud.
So at just gone 13:30 hrs I waded across…
At least I didn’t have to scale the electric fence…
The second one was down the side of another muddy field at the back of a farm and embedded in a Hawthorn hedge. The numbered plate was on the back and very difficult to photograph without poking yer eye out on the thorns…
The things I have to do for a hobby…I love it really…
So with some time to spare I thought I might visit another one. Looking at the map, it was at the side of the road and easy to find. Incidentally, I was using my smartphone to bring up the appropriate maps, and the satellite views were extremely helpful. Although even If I had had no experience, I couldn’t have missed this one…I almost run over it…
Getting a bit late now, and cold, but I spotted one more on the map, and it was on my way home, so why not…
I’ll tell you why not…Because I spent twenty minutes walking down another muddy field with no sign of the last one. The map said it should be here? After having a last walk down the field, and being up to the knees in mud, I spotted it…On the other side of the road…
Another sod to get to with all the brambles and hawthorns, but I bet it would be invisible in the summer with all the undergrowth.
I need to find another way of taking photos, the camera just disappears in the grass on this small tripod.
So that’s four trigs bagged today, better than I expected, and bringing my total to 35…Eight this year and it’s only February…
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I hope this works, a post from Fakebook.
The trig pillars that helped map Great Britain - BBC News
The trig pillars that helped map Great Britain
On 18 April 1936, a group of surveyors gathered around a white concrete pillar (photo) in a field in Cold Ashby, Northamptonshire, and began the retriangulation of Great Britain.
Survey (OS) is celebrating the 80th anniversary of the triangulation pillar, most often known as a “trig pillar” or “trig point” and a welcome sight to many a walker as they reach the peak of their walk.
There were once about 6,500 trig pillars, built by the early surveyors at OS. The pillar was devised by Brig Martin Hotine to provide a solid base for the theodolites used by the survey teams and to improve the accuracy of the readings obtained.
For more history about OS Survey and photos of different pillars around the UK.
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Thanks Fruitcake that’s brilliant…
I’ve been to a few mentioned in the article. Unfortunately I visited Snowdon in 2017 before I was logging them so I’ll have to do it again…
And this one on Win Hill back in 1984
I also visit ‘High Seat’ in the lake district but it was during a race so no time for photos…
I’m up to number 42 now with a couple left to do before the end of April…
I might not have enough time or the fitness to do all 6100 and due to logistical problems I have to omit all of the Scottish ones…
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I wondered why they were built but didn’t like to ask
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